tiny...aka 1958 lloyd

[69.5CUDA]

makeing some new braces for the front tubes, since 1. im not a fan of the way i did it before and 2. the tube would catch it funny, the replacement is thicker and what i should have done in the first place, tho, i recall the why i did it the way i did was specificaly as i hadnt located the door posts and needed structure to do so

getting in on the passenger side for the surgery is going to SUCK

 

[69.5CUDA]

as much as i dont want to do it..i have to...this is how ya go about tweaking the flex out of a chassis like this..just remember im looking at 1/2inch overall and strangly enough almost entirely on the drivers side, which got me thinking..that was the side that slipped the ramp out from under it loading after one of the shows....which could have easily tweaked it...anyway used some roll bar tube and i picked these nuts n all thread out of a scrap bin at my local steel yard..grabbed 4 with the intention of making jack stand hats for them as well as lift adaptors for them so i could level chasiss out, the nuts on these bastards are a lil over 2.25....big mofos for sure i dont have anything but a pipe wrench to turn em..but they turn EASY..to be honest i could just as easily plop 300lbs on the bumper to get similar results..the tweak i need is "light" IE i need my 1/4 inch driver door gap back

probably wont hear from me till monday, fridays are ugly afairs now with moms chemo, and...im semi stuck as i need to find the roof hardware, which...is unique...out of 48 screws i found 7, ive got a couple of missing boxes i need to find, one of which contains all of the switch gear i was fixing to run, some hardware and other bits, god only knows where i put it for safe keeping as i know the emblems were in that box too

 

[69.5CUDA]

ive gotta say this, you guys suck, and are a hell of demotivational tool

only half joking, it just gets frustrating as you see other guys making big dents in stuff plodding along..and here i am back tracking and undooing what i thought was good at the time...but..i keep having to tell myself that..this isnt a resto..it isnt even a resto mod its a full blown change everything mate up multiple cars build and takes 10x the time and effort, if it were a resto mod it would take a year tops as there isnt any need to "make your own as you go",hell even a full tube framed a-body would be a cake walk...you can buy most of it pre made..... atleast you guys dealing with rust either have an example, or can buy either someones cut chunk or a re-pop panel and stitch it in, while im having to make evrything from scratch

on a good note, the chassis IS square, atleast with the engine out...so i dont need to push brace the front

of course somewhere along the line most of the nose is tweaked..and i cant figure out the how/why of it other than ill have to cut the windshield frame free, re-make some of the cowl, and cut the front fenders most of the way off ....the hood gap is "pinched" at the front ant tapers from about 18inchs back from the front edge..its as if the whole nose narrowed by 1 inch at the bumper..which is even too wide by an inch...hows that even happen?!?!?!?!?

even my door gaps are all f-ed up...but hey everything in back is square and true....in fact the doors are only slightly off from the rear...its just evrything forward

 

[Stretch]

All of the progress posts I make are intended to inspire all of you to get out and work on your projects. I hope all of you realize that. All of the Oakland stuff I have posted, and the work I did on my charger was 100% new to me. If I can do it so can you is why I post it.

The stuff you build is amazing. Stick with it. Keep your eye on the prize. I can't wait to see the end result.

 

[Jester]

 

[69.5CUDA]

stretch..with the oakland stuff, i think youve got a pretty good idea of the crap im dealing with..since its 100% hand fab

right now..if i had the space id happily do one of the dodge trucks just as a break..something simple mod free straight forward with infinite parts availibility.....dissasemble blast, paint buy parts assemble..even the 2 to 4x swap will be brain dead simple

with the neighbors moving, wifes busted foot and such its slowed me down considerably, ive not stopped tho

ive cut the cowl free, as well as the rockers and got the windshield and cowl re-aligned, only to find ive got a wacky passenger door alignment, so i cut it free to re-work it..mind you that one was locked in place with some round tube that had to ggo away due to the cage....drivers side body alignment is looking good....save for the hood and fenders need the very front where they have squeezed...not sure how im re-working that yet, ive 100% axed the power windshield plan...sadly..i really wanted to do it and logisticly i can..but finding seals that could be moded to work proved to be impossible after years of hunting

 

[69.5CUDA]

with the deer meat van needing paint, it gave me a reason to get back at the lloyd and "double duty" some painting...which has spured me on

 

[69.5CUDA]

this engine...scares me to no end..i know that if i F it up i can never afford to replace it, as i have the reciept for its build to the tune of 14000$, plus shipping from SA, and that price has pretty close to doubled since it was built

however since it was involved in a fire the block is stained..and keeps corroding in places..theres no easy fix, as much as i didnt want to paint it with how cool the alfa aluminum blocks have an almost pearl coating on them..there is no option but blast seal n paint, however that pearly coating got me talkin with resto which convinced me to pearlcoat the block

normaly id strip an engine to the bone to blast...however..this thing has less than 1000 miles on it and 90% of that is dyno time...TBH id be suprised if it had anything even close to 500 on it since i know its history..and at best it saw 150 mils on the street....so dissasembly would just be waste, worse alot of the parts are custom and special order even the headgaskets....so whats one to do?..seal it tight get crazy about sealing it tight

the research for painting blocks has been done and done and done some more till i was losing more info than i was retaining, the general rule that holds in both camps is THIN coats and as few as possible....some say just paint some say prime....

me i HAVE to prime no question, ill be laying down epoxy primer, then a thin coat of a very fine flake silver with a macro pearl clear...in hopes of achieving something kinda OE looking....i WILL be doing some parts in black as well as the same candy magenta as the body in an attempt to tastefully bring in some color..ALL hardware will be bright zinc gold/yellow weather i farm it out or do it myself is still up in the air

 

[69.5CUDA]

 

[69.5CUDA]

dont ask me why the pics are out of order....just deal with it

 

[69.5CUDA]

oh yeah..and this has also been burning a nice lil flame

 

[69.5CUDA]

getting some actualy clean n happy block back!

 

[69.5CUDA]

after close to 10 years of hunting..and a few close call leads of either finding something too small or wouldnt ship(uk) or no longer in print(germany) i finnaly found someone who not only found a cad file, but cleaned up some issues and printed me up a body
scale is 7.908
for those not in the RC world, i set the scale to match a "1.9" wheel typical of drift and touring car chassis,

in fact i used a calculation site mic'd out a set of 1.9 wheels, then went out and measured a dozen 15inch wheels outside lip to outside lip IE total face size then made the calculator set the 1.9 as if it were a 15(which the average measurement is roughly 16inch on alloy)..and then let the body scale around it

some fun facts tho, this managed to put my t-bird tail lights at .25mm too big to be "scale" when using a off the shelf 5mm led......ok thats just too close to notice, and digging thru other scale stuff, it makes a off the shelf 1.9 wheel into a 15x8, the tires i have selected for it will be about .5mm too low of profile to match, and the list kinda carrys on....so i dug out some of my scale crawler tires for giggles, and the tires pictured are roughly (the knobby mud tires are having issues loading)30x10.50 15s, the "tractor tires" are a 28x15x15

this body was a huge flop out of the printer so another ones getting printed...

but hey ive got a lloyd in the shop and another on the bench...i need to find a chassis i like, its a question of "how do i want it to handle" vs how much detail do i want to put "inside" the body...ive allready found a chassis that wont handle all that well that would allow me to do insanity level of interior and engine bay detail but i may save that for doing a "stock" one

 

[69.5CUDA]

yes BLACK epoxy primer, this block will NEVER corrode again everytime the weather changes...and yes i did not paint coat or otherwise the valve covers front cover or pan...they are remaining in place for now ..simply as "masking" and once the blocks done they will be removed and go thru the same process...and that block was clean enough to EAT


can you hear them screaming, i hear the purists banging their heads against the wall

heres teh fun part those jokers say painting it will have HUGE impacts on the heat dissapation....and one should NEVER paint aluminum...and the list goes on n on ..and they even think..for some reason..that the entire engine assembly is NOT coated, treated or anything, its just raw as it was cast and its beautifull leave it alone.....

 

[69.5CUDA]

admittedly alot of this is a HUGE experiment..however, its based in proven techniques used on award winning show cars including ones driven to the ragged edge, so....i have no doubts about what im doing will hold up and remain looking good for decades to come

the ONLY issues ive come across in the techniques is the argument for/against primer..and the for/against base/clear vs single stage...the biggest factor here again is thickness, thus the argument against primer however when it comes to aluminum...if you dont prime your likely pissing in the wind

now to be clear here i went with a base "mixing" silver..this is NOT a color..this is a variation of the silver metalflake they would directly use to mix up specific grain counts of metal flake paint, and i went with the finest one, with a binder added to it

since ive been talking with resto..ALOT...ive been bending his ear on some tricks and ideas, we came to the conclusion that the silver i picked was ideal and to attempt to get the factory "dip plated" block tones that a pearl in an ultra fine base coat might be the trick, but what pearl..hell if i know so i grabbed a couple and did some pre tests but no pic's and decided one should work in the clear..but what about adding some of the other one to the base?

so i tossed some "macro pearl" in the base coat

what i was laying down on the block and parts tonight felt like a cross between the dip sauce and chrome, to be honest some of it could pass for the OE coating, other sections could pass for powder coat chrome...so i think once the pearl white micro goes on over it..it should look VERY close to factory

 

[69.5CUDA]

it should also be noted that im going deep off book on a few things,

like adding extra reducer (double)to everything...specificaly so that you can lay down stupid thin coats that are liquid smooth with ZERO peal, so smooth and so thin you can see every bit of casting mark

lets face it..your not about to try and sand this so you need it PERFECTLY SMOOTH

the other big kicker here is im pre-heating the engine to 70deg before shooting even if i have to wait hours..and after shooting im maintaining 80 deg in the shop for atleast a few hours...

im also going against the book and letting it sit longer between coats to be 110% sure things have cured..

lastly i found in the omni data sheet that you can ad a % of activator/hardner from the clear to the base for a tougher mix...so i did

PSS
not everything i shot today will stay silver, half those individual parts are getting pulled and will get magenta candy..the same candy im shooting the car with

 

[69.5CUDA]

so ive been doing a ton of experimentations with flake..and by god i cant find anything that truely makes me happy

the issue here is i want key bits of the engine to match the body..and ive come to the conclusion that what i "thought" was going to work on the body just doesnt "pop" loud enough..mind you im not looking for bassboat sillyness..i just want the sun to make that paint dance...and candy coats "mute" the flake so much that a simple course silver doesnt cut it and it only dances at "perfect angles" even if you use silly amounts of flake....ive even consulted with resto on this....right now im sitting on a dozen or so different flakes, and best i can figure i need to use 1..silly amounts, 2 coursest on the bottom smallest on the top 3 layer them up this will "mute" the flakes that are too bassboat, while giving me sparckle that doesnt get over muted by the candy....however with all that said...i had a wild idea...and..i ordered some..uh...flake er powder that im going to run some tests with, if it works ill end up with something wilder than i ever thought possible that will only show itself under certain conditions..ON TOP of the new flake plan...only tests will tell

 

[69.5CUDA]

got some limco black ...as i wanted BLACK not brown or some other off black..seems limco is the only "true black" short of paying silly money

polish my block plugs, used a spark plug socket on the big ones had to shave another socket for the slightly smaller ones

 

[69.5CUDA]

shaved the coil pack covers, polsihed em down, shaved the fins "slightly" to give the more flat top raised apperance and help "age the look"
they will end up body matched with polished fin work..ill worry about putting scripts back on later...the reason they had to go is that due to the original layout of the engine being FWD 1 cover had a script the other was a support for the plenum...so im using 2 "front" valvecovers and coil pack covers, but 1 has to be mounted upside down...so the script had to go on both...i may get a lloyd script laser cut later

 

[69.5CUDA]

paint and flake experiments...nothing here was pre prepped or sanded etc so yes it was all done "dirty"...it was all a flake n candy test nothing more